R&D Packaging Development Manager

We are FBC UK, Fox's Burton's Companies! ……And we bake the UK's most incredible biscuits (we might be slightly biased, but we will leave that for you to judge). 

FBC UK was a match made in heaven, with two of the top UK biscuits manufacturers (Burton's Biscuits and Fox's Biscuits) coming together to create one unique, integrated company. 

We are home to famous iconic brands, including Maryland, Fox's, Jammie Dodger & Rocky, to name just a few. We are proud manufacturing partners to some of the biggest UK retailers and household names. We bake our incredible biscuits at eight bakeries across the UK, located at Isle of Arran, Livingston, Blackpool, Llantarnam, Edinburgh, Kirkham, Batley & Dorset and our HQ in St Albans. Together, we employ circa 4,000 amazing colleagues across all our locations.  

We are currently the second biscuit manufacturer in the UK market with a strong ambition of becoming UK Market Leader.

Whilst we know that we have delicious products we also know that that the key ingredient to our success is our people, and the passion we have for our brands. You could be the jammy to our dodger, party ring to our Fox’s or the choc-chip to our Maryland?!  We knead people with innovative ideas, an entrepreneurial spirit, and the commitment to drive FBC UK to success.

We are committed to building an inclusive workforce that feels empowered to build a fulfilling and successful career. By embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) we create a supportive environment for people to thrive and strive to have more positive impact. 

We understand that having formal and on-the-job learning opportunities is key to our colleagues’ professional and personal growth. We are committed to providing an environment where everyone can learn from each other and grow through a variety of learning experiences.

Our colleagues make our business special. With strong community values, we believe FBC UK is a more prosperous and fun place to work when people feel free to be themselves. We believe in the power of being authentic, entrepreneurial and supporting each other whilst meeting our business goals. 

What does your typical day look like?

To lead and provide the commercial and brand teams the relevant Packaging development for the Ideation and Development pillars of the R&D process.

You will be accountable for bringing in new material development and shaping the packaging pipeline for the next 3-5 years based on insight, trends, and the requirements of both our internal and external stakeholders.

• Bringing in new opportunities, trends, insights, packaging benchmarking, ensuring the scope of each project is defined, and an NPD brief completed for handover to scale up.
• Supporting the business on short, mid, and long-term developments from concept through to commercialization. (Now, next, Future) 
• Leverage expertise inside and outside the organisation to deliver packaging development and new thinking. 
• Packaging Innovation days
• Develop new packaging that meet category standards for Quality, Functionality, Cost-Effectiveness, Consumer Acceptance, Stability, Regulatory Compliance, Sustainability, and operational feasibility.
• Accountable for the completion of technical Packaging hand over documents for new products and processes for to the scale-up team.
• Develop and maintains effective working relationships with your key business partners, ensuring leadership and alignment on key business critical projects.
• Packaging WSL (workstream lead) for key FBC brands. 
• Artwork approvals for FBC branded portfolio 
• Direct reports – 121’s, team meetings, team Objective setting 

What are the key ingredients needs for the role?

• A degree level or equivalent in a Packaging / Engineering discipline
• Highly experienced in a packaging role within a FMCG environment, with direct experience of influencing and managing senior stakeholders.
• Experience of managing and leading a team
• An excellence working knowledge of different packaging substrates such as printed flexibles, cartons, tins, corrugated and thermoformed packaging.
• Systems and software knowledge to include Microsoft packages, Adobe Illustrator, Cape, and Apple Systems.